The Claim That Vaping Causes Cancer is Inaccurate

You see it everywhere — headlines blasting that “new studies show vaping causes cancer”. The smear campaign against vaping is in full force. Parents and crusaders are very scared that teenagers are taking up the habit, which could then supposedly lead to smoking (even though teen smoking is its lowest in years). However, this conveniently ignores all the good vaping does to help those who are smokers. Vaping is an extremely effective tool for quitting combustible cigarettes. And the general consensus internationally is that it is much less harmful than smoking. So what’s with major publications blaring the fear-mongering headlines 24/7? Well — one — fear sells. Also, the FDA and Big Pharma are trying to kill our industry. This reality is going to do A LOT more harm than good and will end up killing people in the process.

Let’s look at one of their most recent claims. The claim that vaping causes cancer comes from an NYU study that tested the effects of e-cigarettes on mice and human DNA. They found that the vapor causes damage, and the general consensus is that damage in DNA can cause cancer. The glaring issue in this study is that they didn’t actually look at the human body, or even compare the results to the effects that combustible cigarette smoke has on DNA. They also made the jump from damaged DNA to full-blown cancer without really understanding if the mechanisms in the human body would follow that trajectory.

There were plenty of other issues with this study. According to NYU, e-cig vapor raised the incidence of damage in bladder, lung, and heart DNA in mice. But as we all know, everyone vapes differently and there are different levels of vapor, equipment, juice, etc. How can one instance (without knowing the exact amount or equipment) predict anything at all? For all we know they were blasting the samples with vapor for hours. They also determined that nicotine caused damaged in the DNA. Wait a second. It is known that NICOTINE DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER! Yes, it is addictive. But as a chemical, nicotine is NOT a carcinogen. Please tell anyone who is misinformed of this fact because it seems to be confusing for some. The nicotine tests were the only ones done on actual human cells, whereas the rest were done of mice. And, once again, there was no comparison in this study to cigarette smoke, which doesn’t really do us any good.

Evidence so far says that e-cigs are far less harmful than smoking. Studies coming out saying otherwise are usually angled in such a way that the news can spin it so that it can paint vaping in a negative light. Vape on!